about helping Cameron

Last week, we celebrated Aaron's birthday for the third and final time at my parents' apartment downtown.

My mom made him his favorite meal that she cooks:  parmesan crusted chicken with alfredo sauce and bowtie pasta.

Then we walked to his favorite downtown cafe, Benelux, for coffee.

It was fun night with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend, Sarah.

Around 8pm we dispersed. Tyler and Sarah left through the parking garage. But Aaron and I had parked on the street in front of the apartment building.

As we were walking to our car, we were approached by a teenage boy. He looked to be 16 or 17, and he was very visibly upset.

You can't ever quite trust the stories you hear from people on the streets downtown. We've heard a lot of them. Something tragic always happens. Their wife is pregnant and they need to get home. They've walked for miles to find money to get a new tire. They have to pick up their mom from the airport but ran out of gas on the way. You get the idea.

But, this boy, he just broke my heart.

He said he got into an argument with his mom, who had been drinking, and instead of taking him all of the way to his girlfriend's house in Fuquay, she dropped him downtown with no money and no phone.

He said he had been asking everyone for help but had only received a couple bucks.

A taxi cost a lot more than that, and buses don't run all the way down to Fuquay.

He was so sad, with tears in his eyes, and Aaron and I looked at each other helplessly.

We very, very rarely carry cash, and we had driven my car with two carseats taking up the back seat. Not to mention that Fuquay is 30 minutes in the opposite direction of where we live.

We told him we were so, so sorry, and we watched him walk away defeated again.

I was so sad for him. We got in my car and I turned to Aaron, "We HAVE to help him somehow."

We discussed some options, and I finally decided to call my dad.

The boy had walked down the sidewalk, but we could still see him. We watched him get blown off by a few more people.

My parents said they would come down and could probably give him a ride to Fuquay.

I stayed in the car with Penny while Aaron went back out to talk to him while we waited for my parents.

When my parents came out, I watched them talk to him for a few minutes. Finally, Aaron came back to the car.

The boy, Cameron, had used my dad's phone, and it was decided they would take him to the Walmart in Fuquay and his girlfriend's mom would pick him up from there. 

Aaron said that he definitely wasn't in a good family situation, but he was going to be 18 in just a few months, so he couldn't really get too much sympathy from social services.

My mom later told me that Cameron told them he has ADHD as well.

Cameron has been on our minds a lot, and we made sure he knew that we would all be praying for him.

My mom told him that she would hate to think of one of her kids wandering around downtown looking for help, and she was so glad we could help him.

He was very thankful, and I'm glad we stopped. I was still a little hesitant sending my parents off with a strange boy. I get nervous about stuff like that just because you never know if you can trust people. But I guess I realized it's not my place to worry about that.

Jesus would have helped Cameron. And He wanted us to help him too. I'm glad we didn't miss the opportunity.